Rate increase for County Waste customers

I received a note with my Feb. 16 bill to let me know the cost of my trash pick up is going up. I paid $27.47 per month all taxes included, for once-a-week pick up of a 35-gallon barrel, plus the same size recycling barrel. Now it is $29.13, per month. It’s not a dramatic increase, but perhaps others with bigger barrels saw a steeper increase.

The letter says, in part: “In our business, the cost to provide you service has continued to increase including raising (sic) health care, New York workers compensation insurance, disposal, truck repair and maintenance and the cost of equipment. At the same time recycling material has declined in value.

We are very proud that we have been able to hold our rates without any increase since 2010. And while we had planned on an increase in 2011, we decided to hold off as long as possible.”

This appears to be the first price increase since California-based Waste Connections Inc. bought County Waste.

Leigh Hornbeck

27 Responses

I agree the increase is modest. But I don’t have much household garbage anyhow. I recently purchased a permit for the local transfer station which I pass everyday anyhow and it was only $20.00 per year. I think it’s time to close my account. This will give me the final push to make that phone call. I don’t think the average person really thinks about it but we pay for many monthly services we most likely don’t need. I know it’s only $29.13 but for the average worker to pay $29.13 actually has to earn about $40.00 in income to keep $29.12 in net salary.

Although you don’t actually say so, I assume the $29.13 is a monthly charge. Therefore $29.13 X 12 = $349.56 a year, which may be chump change to some, but not me. Marty is getting a deal at $20 a year; I pay $65 a year (Clifton Park), but it’s still a lot better than $350 a year.

I get picked up weekly and pay $38.60 per month = $463.20 per year for 90 gal roll cart excellent service by the way but I think its to much and we need some competition but I also think they bought the dump so anyone who tries to start a refuse business would get priced out of the dump so get ready we all are about to pay.. I live in the village of Stillwater

I am in agreement with Laura. The single-stream recycling is very worthwhile to me. They expanded their recycling program so much that the majority of my garbage is now recyclable. And, a rate change has not taken place is several years. Everything goes up in cost; at least County is bringing it to our attention, and not trying to sneak a raise into our bill every few months like Time Warner.

I took advantage of a special Waste Management offered last year. The service is excellent. Whenever there is an issue with pickup, they shoot me a call to let me know when they’re coming. Couldn’t be happier with the switch!!!

They just had an increase in 2010!, I think the wording on the letter was even identical. I loved to know how much profit this company is making compared to years past. Theres basically zero competition. I’d bet there making record profits. I’d love to see the Facts on County Waste’s Rising health Care, Insurance, Disposal, Truck Repair and the rest of the BS they are feeding us. County Waste is doing the same thing as every other Big Buisness during a long recession, Raise Prices, because if you are not increasing profits every year no matter what, you are failing as a buisness. Its disgusting.

What wasn’t mentioned in Leigh’s post was that County recently went to single stream recycling which SAVES them tons of money on labor costs (reduced their work force – eliminating the guys who had to empty the bins into the truck).

I’ll be calling County to tell them I’ll terminate my service if they raise my rate. If they get enough of these calls, they WILL reconsider this decision. Its FAR more costly for them to find new customers than it is to retain existing customers.

Vote with your wallet folks…give them a call and give them one shot to correct it. Otherwise, open the phone book – there are independent haulers out there.

It’s amazing how you all are bitching about such a small increase! I don’t see anyone bitching on here that gas prices are $4 gallon. So, go ahead and use your gas money to drive to the landfill to bring your trash. To me, it’s worth having the service of having it picked up! It’s a convenience not having to worry about hauling it to the dump. People will keep paying for that convenience. They have such a large customer base that even if hundreds of you cancel, the business will be fine! Keep up the good work County Waste!

I don’t live in a Town with a $50 or even $65 landfill permit fee. We pay $2 a bag. $30/ month is $7.50/wk. It would take 4 kitchen bags to break even. For a home with small children, that’s not too bad. It saves me from having to lug the kids in the car, drive the transfer station, sit in line for 20 minutes to throw the bags in the dumpster and another 20 minutes to put my recyclables in the correct bin. The whole episode takes about an hour – an hour that I don’t have.

Not sure how collecting single stream recycling would save them $ in labor costs (as bocuse suggested) since they are still pickup up the same amount of stuff, just separated differently – doesn’t make sense.

I think it makes sense that the labor cost is down for single stream. They used to have multiple people on the truck picking up the bins and dumping them. They now have a truck with a lift that grabs the barrel. One guy doing the work of multiple sounds like a labor savings to me.

all those so called labors that got replaced by automated trucks now work at the recycling center in albany. and have all you people ever payed insurance, comp insurance, salary, fleet maintence dump fees and all the rest of the costs it takes to pick up your garbage? oh btw, new york requires recyling therefore it is FREE here and companies that pick it up do so for free and then have to take care of it. when the market is up, they do make money off of it. But when the market for those items are down, no profit from recycling.

Steve, you are in business to make money. You are charging more because you can. You do not need to justify anything.

The conflict arises when you try to justify the price increase by making invalid arguments. We know you have bills to pay. Are you saying we do not? When your vendors raise their prices are you happy about it? Neither are we. You will look for the lowest cost gas supplier and we will look for the lowest cost garbage collection. It is not personal.

When the price of gas goes up, you raise your rates to your customers. When our garbage collection rates go up, we can’t turn to our bosses and say we need a raise to cover the increasing price of garbage collection.

You do not need to argue anything. You are raising your rates because you can.

By the way ‘labor cost’ is a business term. Labor is an adjective in this case not a noun as you used it.